The present invention relates to reviewing and editing word processing documents.
Word processing systems allow for the creation of documents, primarily textual documents that might otherwise be prepared on a typewriter. Such documents will be referred to as word processing documents, or simply, documents. The created documents can be edited, saved, or printed using the word processing systems. The word processing systems also allow for non-textual content (e.g., images or video clips) to be included in the document. A document does not necessarily correspond to a file. A document can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other documents, in a single file dedicated to the document in question, or in multiple coordinated files.
Word processing documents can be represented in a variety of document formats. One document format is the portable document format (PDF), available from Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif. PDF is a format for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the source system used to create those documents. The source system can have its own format, which will be referred to as the source format. Other document formats include markup language formats, for example, XML (extensible markup language). XML is a markup language for marking data with markup tags that indicate what data is being described. For example, the word “phone” placed within markup tags could indicate that the data that followed is a phone number.
Conventional systems for reviewing and editing documents enable an author to create a document and submit the document for review by a reviewer. A reviewer may read the document and provide comments about the document. In some examples, the comments may include proposed changes to the document. The reviewer then submits the document with any comments to an editor. The editor reads the comments and may make changes to the document based on the comments suggested by the reviewer, resulting in a new version of the document. In some instances, the editor may be the author. After reviewing the document and any comments submitted by the reviewer, and after making any changes to the document, the editor may again submit the new version of the document to a reviewer for a second review. After receiving a second draft, a reviewer is faced with a challenge of determining exactly what changed between the first draft and the second draft, and how the reviewer's comments have been incorporated into the draft.